Free Invasive Species Part One by Daniel J. Kirk

1.        IN THE WAKE OF TITANS
     
     
    “You’re acting strange.”
    “Me? What do you mean?”
    Melinda looked suspiciously at her fiancé Derek. Something was off about him but she didn’t know what.
    Derek reached out and placed his hands on her shoulders. He couldn’t quite feel the act. He knew it was happening, but it felt like he was in the back of his head looking out. Derek couldn’t remember coming to meet with his fiancé. He couldn’t remember much at all actually, and now he could see he was scaring her.
    He spoke, at least his voice was saying something. His mind was still detached. No, it wasn’t Derek speaking at all. It was someone, something else.
    “It’s fine, Melinda. It’s me. You can believe that.”
    Derek screamed inside his head.
     
    Gone were Melinda’s soft features, her golden skin and hair had become a greenish blue haze. He could feel his arms and legs again. They were dangling, suspended in some form of gelatin. His movements were slowed, but he was able to move his hands into his line of sight and press them against the glass tube. Then he found the breathing apparatus attached to his nose.
    He screamed and pounded against the glass. The dull thuds attracted dark blurry figures.
    The beings spoke. But it was not English.
    Then they did something and Derek’s vision went white, his mind blanking a blink later.
     
    Derek was in the shower. He could hear his fiancé yelling for him, “Hurry up, what are you doing in there? We’re going to be late.”
    Derek watched as his hand appeared and turned off the shower, and removed the curtain. He stepped in front of the mirror and now Derek saw what had spooked Melinda. Something was different about him. It was the way his eyes looked dull, almost plastic.
    “Coming,” Derek’s voice responded.
    Inside his mind Derek panicked. He knew it wasn’t him. He wasn’t in control. He could remember the greenish blue goo and he could still feel the tubes shoved up his nose. Something was terribly wrong.
     
    It felt like lightning struck. Suddenly, Derek was ripped around. His body stumbled and met a hard ground. Darkness surrounded him as the warm gelatin squirmed off his body. He felt the cold air of the empty room embrace him like a kick in the pants. He collapsed, tugged himself into the fetal position and hoped to warm himself.
    There was a fizz and a pop. Something electric still hung on, flickering every couple of seconds. The strobing light revealed a sterile gray room filled with bodies suspended in glass pods. Derek’s had broken open and he lay naked on the ground. Quickly regaining his senses was not beneficial. Everything was wrong, the smell, the temperature, the sounds. It was like smelling a busted muffler while baking cookies.
    He had no clue where he was, but it was not a place he could’ve ever imagined.  Unearthly would’ve been the correct description if Derek had been willing to admit it to himself.
    But he was still trying to stay rational. His mind worked to tell him it was just some strange government experiment. That would make sense. Derek worked for the government.  He’d probably signed some document when he got his last pay raise that allowed them to mess with his mind and run strange experiments. He was sure it was all perfectly legal if he’d read the fine print in his contract.
    If he passed the test, whatever it may be, they might appreciate his potential and grant him a more sizeable raise. Derek quickly nixed that thought. The key was to stay rational.
    He looked around the room in between the flickering light, hoping to see a phone or a page that he could let the scientists know he was up and out and needed medical attention and an explanation. He kept trying to convince himself that if he just acted calm and cool they would let him go and they could be high fiving it over beers after work later. It’d be one big happy joke.
    It’s the ones that panic that end up dead.
    Derek stood up and